


This is fine. (Except it's not.)

by Mothfluff



Series: thursday nights and friday mornings [2]
Category: Critical Role (Web Series), Perc'ahlia - Fandom
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Student/Teacher, Modern AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-31
Updated: 2017-10-31
Packaged: 2019-01-27 05:22:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,350
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12574608
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mothfluff/pseuds/Mothfluff
Summary: It was almost a completely normal 90 minutes of class.If her head wasn't constantly spinning around that argument before class. Her stupid question and his stupid answers and their stupid fight.Could you really call it a fight, though?





	This is fine. (Except it's not.)

**Author's Note:**

> You do need to read the first part of this series to understand anything.
> 
> This is pretty much a transitionary chapter. I promise there's gonna be more, well, action? In later chapters. But it takes some work to get there.  
> So far we've only seen friday mornings. Once we get to the first thursday nights, things will pick up.

It would be okay this time, she told herself standing in front of the classroom door. She'd be more awake, less hungover than last time, and he'd have no reason to constantly call on her and nag her for it. It would be a regular class, like it had been every friday morning before _he_ showed up to teach it.

„Good morning.“ It was just a harmless greeting, but it made her jump nonetheless – Percy was standing far too close for comfort, talking almost directly into her ear. She brushed him with her shoulder while turning, ending basically face to face if he wasn't so damn tall. As it stood, she was pretty much just staring at his throat and collarbones before looking up.

„You're quite early.“ he continued before stepping past her to unlock the door, not even waiting for her to reply to his greeting.

She couldn't form a single word, couldn't stop staring, for some strange reason, at the part of his neck where white hair faded to almost as light skin.

 

„Well, in you go, if you please.“ He turned to her – damn it – and motioned into the classroom. „Class doesn't start for another 10 minutes, I'm afraid, but you might as well sit down already.“ With that, he was heading for his desk.

Vex stood in the doorway for a second, realising that going straight for the back row as she usually did would be the single most awkward thing to do right now.

After a moment of hesitation, she put her giant travel mug of coffee on a table in the second row and began unpacking her bag. She hoped he wouldn't notice. The way his eyebrows rose above his glasses while he was still looking halfway down on his papers told her he did.

Vex was desperate to break the awkward silence, but with what, she couldn't figure out. 8am was too fucking early, she thought, even without a hangover. Her mouth acted before her brain could stop it.

 

„I had a question, actually.“ Fuck. What? No. She did not have a question. She had no idea what to ask. She barely remembered the topic of the last class right now.

„Oh yes, of course.“ Percy sat up straight, obviously expecting her to talk about just that class, considering he'd offered to answer any questions last time they spoke.

„How did you know I was out drinking with old men last week?“ Oh balls, it was only getting worse. _Vex, you idiot, you absolute fool, what in hell's name are you doing_. She wasn't sure if the voice in her head was her own or her brother's. Sure, he'd probably still want to know, being the one who'd brought that question into her mind, but just maybe he might've been smart enough not to corner the guy he considered a possible threat in an otherwise empty room, at an almost empty school.

Percy's reaction at least assured her that he was most definitely not a threat, stuttering and blushing and awkwardly fidgeting with his papers.

„Oh god, you remembered.“ He whispered more to himself before clearing his throat. „Again, I'm very sorry for that comment. It was uncalled for.“

„That's not what I asked.“ She realised she had the upper hand in this conversation, for now, and was most definitely enjoying it. Percy blushing even more was definitely helping.

„It was a bad assumption. I remembered seeing you outside the Strongjaw pub with that weird musician.“ He paused. „You seemed quite drunk, to be fair.“

„And what exactly were you doing at a seedy pub on the other side of the town?“ She tried hard to keep her upper hand, but it was already slipping. The question had sounded far too biting.

„I'm pretty sure that's none of your business.“

„How drunk I get and with whom is none of your business, either.“

„Indeed, and I've apologised twice now. You decided to bring it up again.“

Silence. She downed her coffee more angrily than ever. Before she could give just as angry an answer, though, two students came in. The way Percy greeted them made it more than obvious how relieved he was to see them.

 

\-------------------------

 

It was certainly not as bad this week as it had been last time. He'd only said 'Vex' during attendance. He never once called on her. She actually, voluntarily, raised her hand for two answers – and she even got them right. The topic was getting more and more interesting, the way Percy presented it, full of energy and obvious enthusiasm for his subject. It was almost a completely normal 90 minutes of class.

If her head wasn't constantly spinning around that argument before class. Her stupid question and his stupid answers and their stupid fight.

Could you really call it a fight, though? Vex remembered proper fighting, with shouting and door-slamming and cursing and saying things you could never really take back. She remembered Vax fighting with their father. Vax fighting with unstable patrons when they worked at the pubs. Vax fighting with drunkards outside pubs who tried to make a move on her.

Vax was getting into a lot of fights, she realised. Her worry was cut short by everyone around her suddenly getting busy packing up. She hadn't even noticed that Percy had ended class.

 

„Vex, could you stay a bit?“

Almost. She'd almost slipped out of the room unnoticed. She needed to work on her stealthiness. Now she had to face another definitely awkward chat with this, this goober.

 _Steady_ , she tried to calm herself while sauntering over to his desk, _you might actually be lucky enough that this is not about the drunk old men again._

„Yes, Mr. De Rolo?“ She leaned against the table across him, trying to act nonchalant, and failing hard when she realised how agressively raised her shoulders were in this pose.

„I've been going through Mr. Myers' notes this past week. What with taking over this class and having to be actually prepared.“ Percy was shuffling through said notes, not looking at her. „Luckily he left pretty detailed info on everything and.. everyone. Attendance, student evaluations, all sorts of info.“

„How fascinating.“ That was not nonchalant either. That was teasing, she realised. Why, why in god's name was she trying to tease her teacher? Why did it cause him to look up, actually look at her, with those blue eyes, why was he even allowed to have such blue eyes, and why the hell were they so concerned right now?

„Vex, you're failing this course.“

Oh.

Her heart dropped all the way down into her stomach.

„I'm what?“

„According to Mr. Myers' notes and your review. Apparently your participation is sub-standard, and your short-exam results...“ He shuffled to another paper. „He's also noted down that rude answers on questions you don't know the solution to are not going to earn you extra points.“ He couldn't hide a short, but amused snort. At any other time she would've found it endearing.

 

„I'm failing the course? Actually failing?“ Her hands were grabbing the desk under her so hard the knuckles turned white.

„At the moment, yes.“ Percy tried to smile at her, tried to soften the blow any way he could. „I don't really share Mr. Myers' opinion on your participation, but as it stands... your current grades will be hard to turn around.“

„I can't fail this course.“ Her heart, still down in her stomach, was racing. She didn't even know what would happen if she failed a non-mandatory course. All she could think of was being told that for some reason she couldn't continue her studies. That she'd have to leave the school, or spend a year making up for this stupid engineering class, paying out of her ass for another year she didn't want to-

„I can't fail this course.“ She simply repeated, her face almost as white as her knuckles now.

„You don't necessarily have to.“

Her head shot up, staring straight at Percy. His eyes were more hopeful than her entire mind was right now.

„As I said, it will be hard to turn your grades around. But I think you can do it, if you put in the extra work.“ Another paper shuffle. He was doing that a lot. „You need to do more in class, obviously. Get at least a B on your next exams. And to make up the missing points from the past lessons, I've collected some additional tasks you can hand in, like an essay and some research-“ he was almost nervous looking for those papers now „- and if you just turn these in bit by bit during the rest of the semester, and do them well, I'm pretty sure you'll make it through, even if your final grade is not, well, the best you could do.“

He handed over the papers he finally got together. Her hands were shaking as she took them, they both noticed. Staring at the pages, she had a hard time focussing on the text.

„So I have to hand all these in.“ Was all she could say.

„Whenever, basically. The only real deadline is a week before final class, so I can mark them in time. Or earlier, of course, if you get it done.“

 

„This is a lot.“ She flipped over the pages. _What the hell, Vex? Are you complaining about being given a chance to make up for your fuck-up?_ Percy's look seemed to echo her thoughts.

„Well, there is a lot to catch up. You can try to turn this ship around, or“ he shrugged „you let it sink and just drop the class.“

„No!“ That may have been a bit too quick of a reaction.

„It's not mandatory for you, though, is it? People drop extra classes all the time.“

„I'm not dropping anything. I can do this.“

„I hope you do.“ Rude. Was that rude? She wasn't sure. It was hard to make out his intentions right now, what with staring at pages of pages, full of equations and questionaires and graphs. As it was, she just huffed indignantly.

„I can. I will.“ Maybe she shouldn't be quite so rude in return. „Erm, thank you, of course. For letting me make it up, I mean.“

„It's the least I can do.“ He smiled, thank god. She was feeling more at ease, seeing that. Maybe a bit too much.

„Or you could just fudge some numbers and let me pass.“ As soon as she said it, she regretted it. That was definitely a step too far into teasing again.

Percy snorted again, trying to hide a short laugh.

„Don't push it, Vex.“ It could be just her imagination, but she was pretty sure there was teasing in his voice too.

 

\------------------------------------------

„Vex!“ A voice from the other end of the street called. „Vex, wait!“

For a second, she hoped it was Percy trying to come after her. It was a ridiculous thought, though – he wouldn't have been fast enough to match her speed, he definitely wouldn't follow her all the way home anyway, and besides, she would've recognised his voice (it was hard to admit that, even to herself).

Instead, when she turned she saw a woman almost as tall as Percy come jogging, her bright red hair trailing behind her. Vex tried to smile as best as she could when she recognised her.

„Oh Keyleth, hi! We don't have study group today, or did I miss something?“

„Oh nonono, don't worry. I'm, I'm just on my way over to- Vax and I were gonna meet up-“ Keyleth began to stutter and blush. Vex had been wondering what was going on between those two, but it was becoming pretty obvious by now.

„He didn't tell me he had a date. Do you want the flat to yourself?“ She winked and got the expected result – the poor girl in front of her went almost crimson.

„Oh gosh, oh, no, we wanted to get some, um, just some lunch. Down at Gilmore's. You're, uh, welcome to come along if you want!“

„Don't worry, I won't bother you. I haven't got time, anyway. Gotta do a whole lot of extra homework tonight.“ She kept walking towards her apartment house, Keyleth now in tow.

„Oh, what, extra homework? What for?“

Vex sighed dramatically. „This stupid as shit engineering class my idiot arse signed up for. Apparently I'm falling behind.“

„The one with the horrible substitute last week?“ Well, wasn't Vax a chatterbox, apparently. She didn't remember telling Keyleth anything about that.

„Yeah. Except he's not a substitute anymore. He's taken over the class now.“ She stopped dead in her tracts, and Keyleth only noticed after getting quite a few steps further. „Oh god, don't tell Vax that, okay? He still thinks that guy has it out for me, he's only gonna worry about it.“

Keyleth quickly nodded, but raised one eyebrow. „Um, I mean. If he's giving you extra work now, Vax is sort of right, though? Is the teacher picking on you, maybe?“

„No, no. The work is help for me. I'm, uh, I need to get my grades up, and he offered it for extra points.“

Keyleth's worried face lit up just as quick. „That's nice! If you need any help, just ask – I mean, I don't know much about engineering... nothing, really... but we could do a library date if you need to? Additional study group?“

„I might actually take you up on that.“

They'd arrived at the twins' front door now, and Vex tried not to think about everything she'd been fretting over on her way home. She especially tried not not think about Percy's worried look when he saw her pale face. Or his hopeful smile when he offered the help. Or his face at all.

It was easier to forget his face when she saw Vax's behind the door – giving a bright smile to Keyleth, which quickly turned into absolute shock and embarassment when he noticed his sister behind her. Now _this_ was definitely the right place for teasing.

 


End file.
